Well the class has been very busy trying to finish their paper blogs. The students definitely maintained their level of excellence (awesomeness as they would say) when it came to presenting their work. Ten students were nominated as the best and then everyone in the class completed a secret ballat, voting on their top 5 in order of preference. In the end 6 children were chosen to be in charge of our new blogs. In the next few days will we be adding links to these blogs, and will be letting everyone know what our new topics are. Keep your eyes peeled.

This year Mr Phipps and I decided that it would be more beneficial to have the camp in the early stages of the year and also in the summer months. Therefore last week we departed for Bridgetown Camp School to participate in a wide variety of activities to further develop team building skills, leadership, confidence, respect and co-operation.

The trip began with a quick drive on the bus to Bridgetown where we settled in and met the camp coordinators. Captain Collin and Trish were wonderful hosts who looked after us very well with tasty meals, fun games, interesting stories and adventurous activities. The highlight of the camp for me was canoing in Donnelly River and bush bike riding, as well as getting to know students that I hadn’t had a lot to do with previously.

Came home feeling quite tired and 5 kg heavier thanks to being very spoilt by Colleen and Toni in the camp kitchen. Thanks to all the parent volunteers Mrs Bassett, Mrs Clarke, Mr Palmer and Mr Baylis, who made the camp such a great success for Mrs Jones, Mr Phipps and I.

In the early days of February I welcomed back 11 of last years 6’s to the class, but now as year 7’s. To that lovely group of 7’s we also have seven new year 6 students and another ten 7’s. The year has started very well with all students co-operating and getting along with each other very well. Gradually they have been getting used to me and my expectations and routines. I am very sure that it is going to be a great year in Room 13 working as Mrs B’s new Team.

Thanks to all my Year 6/7 students for the awesome job you have done this year. I have seen a great improvement in all of your over the year. I have been very proud at how well you all get along and how you present yourselves at Cooinda. I look forward to having my year 6’s again next year as year 7’s as well as a whole new bunch of students who will be joining Mrs B’s Team.

To the Year 7’s I wish you all the best in the coming years in high school but also in your other journeys. I have loved teaching each and everyone of you and hope that you have listened to the countless lectures I have given you about your individual potential and what you can achieve. Aim for the best you can be and be selective about new friendships that may come your way. I wanted to say more to you all yesterday before you left but as you know I got a little choked up and couldn’t get the words out. This is not goodbye because you will all pop in and see me I hope.

Today was a HUGE success. The year 7 students worked very hard for weeks rehearsing the present the school, staff, special guests and parents with an awesome celebration to finish year primary school. We would like to especially thank Mrs Garbellini for all her efforts in putting together the leavers book and helping to make the assembly so wonderful.

Mr Phipps and I were really proud at how well all the students spoke during their individual speeches and also how they performed in their lipdub item. I had a big smile on my face the whole time you were all speaking. It was extremely impressive. It finished off a great year perfectly.

The year has flown by so quickly and what a great year it has been. Our class has had some great times doing a lot of amazing things. From Busselton Camp through to our year 7’s attending a trip to Margaret River last week, to participate in canoeing and bushtucker tasting. Believe it or not …. I did eat a witchety grub. Next week we finish the year with our Celebration Night and our Graduation Assembly. Just can’t wait to display our LipDub to our school community.

On a personal note, the highlight of my year has definitely been learning more about incorporating technology into the classroom. This has been all thanks to Mr Phipps and Mr Scott. I have loved working more with Smart Boards, iPods and of course Blogging.

I have found blogging to be a great way to communicate to the broader community and the parents and children of our class. It was always so lovely to receive comments from others across the globe enjoying what we were learning about in the class. Students individual blogs gave them the opportunity to engage with students from places around the world who shared the same interests. It also gave them the opportunity to display their written work in a variety of genres. Blogging also gave the teachers the chance to teach about how to use social media appropriately.

Next year I will continue to blog and encourage my students to do the same. I am still deciding how it will look in my class but look forward to more technology challenges.

Thank you for a fantastic year “Team”. I have loved teaching you all and will miss having some of those characters in the class in 2012. Keep up the great work year 7’s and best of luck in high school.

Mrs B

PS I would love to hear your comments On what you thought about blogging?

Over the past few weeks we have been very busy completing activities around the topic Australian History. We have worked on time lines, created posters, participated in role plays and are currently working on our Bush Rangers Work Contract. I hope to put some photographs on here of some of the amazing Ned Kelly Wanted Posters on the blog very soon.

When I was at primary school many moons ago, I loved the spirograph set that received as a Christmas present one year. This week in class I got my students to investigate what spirographs were and then they had to create their own great examples using a website link. Of course this was a little different to how we used to make them but fun none the less.

For those of you who do not know what the spirograph toy was it is a geometric drawing tool that creates curves using equipment similar to gears on a bike. It gave me hours of fun when I was young and this week in class my students enjoyed creating some wonderful examples.

This was our contribution to the Fruit and Vegetable garden outside Room 11. All the classes did an amazing job creating their wonderful scarecrows. The Farmer found a wife outside in the vegetable patch this time.